Having disengaged successfully from the enemy on 27 May 1940 along the Canal de la Lawe and withdrawn through thin defences at Estaires, the 1st Battalion The Royal Irish Fusiliers continued withdrawing. At dawn on 28 May, having had little to no sleep, they were ordered back to stiffen the defence of Estaires. There was much frustration at the poor higher command and staff decisions and this increased when, not long after arriving, the Faughs were again ordered to withdraw. As they passed through the town, shopkeepers begged the soldiers to help themselves to the goods in the shops and to leave nothing for the Germans. One batman even presented his Company Commander with a fine pair of embroidered slippers for use in moments of ease.

The Faughs marched on through the night, past roads full of abandoned vehicles and columns of troops all heading for the coast; just before midnight on 28 May, the Faughs reached Watou where, ‘They suffered from a lack of sleep so acute that eyes throbbed and felt as if they had grit in them, so compelling that men went to sleep on their feet, waking with a guilty start that was physically painful’.